In 1972, American President Richard Nixon declared the global war on drugs and created a policy to use law enforcement to ban all transport, agriculture, and usage of drugs worldwide. This seemingly friendly rule caused a total disaster and formed a ‘dystopian world’ over the next few decades. Currently, through protests and seeing the danger of it, countries are rethinking drug policies. Today we will be focusing on how governments are changing their drug policies, whether it’s through legalization, decriminalization, or stricter enforcement, and how these decisions impact society, especially young people.
Over 25 countries around the world have decriminalized drugs to some degree. Drugs are most popular among teens. According to National Abuse for Drug Statistics, youth drug usage is a high-profile public concern, with at least 1 in 8 teenagers abusing an illicit substance. Drug usage among 8th graders rose to 61%, and 50% of teenagers have misused a drug at least once.
Drugs are harmful, especially as they can alter one’s mind, consciousness, health, and mood. However, banning drugs has seemed to cause much more danger than the drug itself. For the past half-century, the war on drugs has subjected millions to criminalization, incarceration, and lifelong criminal records, disrupting or altogether eliminating access to adequate resources and support to live healthy lives. The drug policy does not and can not only stop usage but also affects lots of countries that produce or transport drugs. Imagine this: Fatima is a farmer with little land that cannot effectively grow crops and transportation is unavailable. Therefore, she grows drug crops and gives them to drug transporters who come directly to her for pick up.
Nonetheless, when the government enforced this, they used chemicals to poison the drug corps but it can also pollute the land at the same time. Fatima is in a big debt for the transporters, so this time she has to grow double the amount of drugs. Yet, the government stopped her again and invited experts to grow normal crops with her. The result was the crops were weak and small but Fatima’s debt still had to be paid so she grew drug crops again. In the end, Fatima does not get the food or the medicine she needs. This example represents a common situation faced by farmers in similar conditions where in some countries, farmers with limited land and resources may feel forced to grow illegal crops, falling into this terrible cycle. In this situation, a girl has cancer and the government is afraid that her pain medicine will fall into the hands of illegal markets, so they set tight restrictions for everyone and that finishes with her not getting or using her pain medicine from the doctor. This has affected 5.5 million patients across the world. Other scenes like illegal transportation in countries and gun shootings between the police and drug gangs occur as well. Violence, addiction, corruption, poverty, and lack of access to health care are all the basic problems of the drug policy. There might be more danger in marginalized countries if this doesn’t stop.
More than addictions, human rights and safety are also incredibly important. ‘The international community must replace punishment with support and promote policies that respect, protect and fulfill the rights of all, say UN experts. The policy isn’t just about helping people to stay away from harmful substances but is also a form of discrimination. The war on drugs can be understood as an event on human beings. It is found frequently in the drug policy that the greatest impact of the rule is on people
who live in poverty and specifically overlaps with discrimination directly toward marginalized groups. It enables lots of human rights such as the right to personal liberty, freedom from torture, ill-treatment, and forced labor, fair trial rights, and the right to health: including access to essential medicines, palliative care, comprehensive drug prevention and education, drug treatment, and harm reduction. Citizens in Africa who take drugs experience strict law enforcement, frequent arrests, or drug-related offenses. Around the world, women who do drugs face significant stigma and discrimination in accessing harm reduction programs and drug dependence treatment. For health care access, only one in five women are in treatment. They are disproportionately affected by criminalization and offenses with 35% of women in prison worldwide having been convicted of a drug-related offense compared to 19% of men, revealing a gender gap in the event.
For children and young people, drug usage is increasing. It is heartbreaking to see such substances harming children’s mental, physical, and emotional health. However, all too often, the topic of teen drug usage has only been mentioned, and not many actions have been taken to address this issue. Despite guidelines and self-help websites being brought up, ‘the world drug problem’ still documented negativity in youngsters, and important gaps in our understanding of drug use, drug-related harms, and children’s involvement in the drug trade must also be recognized. Unfortunately, the 2009 UN Political Declaration and Plan of Action on drugs does not adequately address specific issues facing children and young people concerning drug use. Nor does it adequately address children’s and young people’s involvement in the drug trade. Prevention of drug use and treatment of drug dependence are generally considered to be positive policy responses, despite effectiveness. There was random drug testing, sniffer dogs, and strip-searching in school that raised concerns about privacy, child rights, etc. Strip-searching is degrading and humiliating as well as ineffective. Schools should educate youngsters about the harm of addiction to drugs and big topics like the global war on it.
Globally, drug policy has had a massive impact on human rights, protests, discrimination, and dignity. While the policy was allegedly intended to be ‘kind’, there are still great inconveniences and deep secrets behind the scenes. Drug control is important, and different nations have different methods, whether it’s legalization, decriminalization, or stricter enforcement. The world should work together as a group to help create a more fair, kind, and effective space as well as support our next generation on educational care and safe reminders.
